Live rock VS?

[ksfulk]

Marcorocks is my go to for quality inexpensive and good looking dry rock. They offer free shipping and you can mix and match what type of rock you'd like to get. Always packaged great and always a bit more than you paid for. Plus if you are building your rockscape, he offers some of the best mortar you can use for putting your rocks together right on site (Marco E400). Plus, he's a sponsor of this site.

If you are planning on ordering live rock - I'd take a look at Tampa Bay Saltwater. There are several amazing looking tanks that use "The Package" from TBS with great success. Take a look at @d2mini tank builds for example. If I were going with live rock, I'd talk to TBS as my first choice.

 

[tom reilly]

All the online links are awesome and saved in my bookmarks, but my question is still unanswered. What is the reason advising us to order online instead of getting it from a lfs?
I don't mean a big box store, I mean a local small business dedicated to saltwater.
Thanks!

The Price.

 

[Run4Fun]

Best experience I ever had is from TBS. The product is absolutely amazing. Lots of critters, some good, some bad. If you're not a fan of discovering and dealing with new critters, dry rock is the way to go.

http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com

 

[kashman100]

+1 for TBS. Tons of life. I like seeing all the different things your not going to find on dry rock.

 

[erinmegan85]

With my first tank I got my rock from a LFS that I didn't know it was a bad idea to buy stuff from at the time. I lucked out in that someone has broken down their tank recently and given them their live rock to sell. I bought about 14 pounds of rock from them, and the critters I got included bristle worms, stomatella snails, asterina starfish, and one lonely only hermit crab. I also lucked out that said tank that this rock came from apparently didn't have any nasty things like aiptasia or bubble algae hanging around on it.

My second go around I was having a tough time deciding whether to get live rock online from a place like Tampa Bay Saltwater or drive two and a half hours to a story I trust to get the live rock from. In the end I decided to go to the store because I didn't want to have to find and eliminate any bad hitchhikers from my new tank, and I wanted to be able to actually pick out the pieces of rock that were going into my tank. I threw in some stomatella snails and asterina starfish from my other tank to get a little bit of movement in there until I officially got some of my cleanup crew.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I do shop there when I can and it does help answer my question. It was just that the instruction was, "order online". Not, if you have a good lfs that you like, shop there. There were no ifs ands or buts...order online. So I thought maybe there was a reason and wished to be enlightened.

I gotcha. I think most of us were just recommending places we know and have had good experiences with. It wasn't meant that you should do that instead of buying at your lfs...but those are the ones we can recommend.

 

[skybears]

Well I didn't look too good today and did talk to TBS and they were wonderful so needless to say I am having a hundred and seventy pounds of live rock 75 pounds of life sand and I can't tell you how many Little Critters being shipped via air to my house so I'm going to have to drive 3 hours in Washington state to go to the airport. (One of the reasons why it sucks to live in northern Idaho)to pick up my goodies but I'm so excited I want to scream
I went with the "the package" deal they recommend

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Well I didn't look too good today and did talk to TBS and they were wonderful so needless to say I am having a hundred and seventy pounds of live rock 75 pounds of life sand and I can't tell you how many Little Critters being shipped via air to my house so I'm going to have to drive 3 hours in Washington state to go to the airport. (One of the reasons why it sucks to live in northern Idaho)to pick up my goodies but I'm so excited I want to scream
I went with the "the package" deal they recommend

TBS has an excellent reputation! I'm sure you will enjoy their product.

 

[skybears]

I'm hoping I'm a little scared of 175 lbs of rock though, I'm so scared of those darn mantis shrimp..lol

 

[kashman100]

I got some sand from TBS also and didn't like the look. It was crushed up shells and not white. I ended up sifting the large stuff out and adding white sand on top

 

[Sir Chris]

That's crazy 2 drive out of state for it. Either that's an untapped market or a dead one. I have 6 lfs reef stores and they all know each other of course so my days off is a round trip 2 all then back if what I liked wasn't at my favorite store. And on my lunch break there's a store that the owner is a horder and has a remora and a lot of other crazy fish so that's my release for going back 2 work. I couldn't imagine not a lfs expecally for rock as I'm very picky. I went live rock 1st tank and now I've cycled my dead rock and waitn for my stand 2 build its self and is a 75g current is 30. And how can u rid LR of bristles and eggs as I want 2 transfer the rock but not the pests. I know bristles can b good but my clean up crew does the job and they just annoy me and asteria stars and inherited margarita snails from LR have 200 of em. Babys

 

[Sir Chris]

That's just 1 rock. But I do have the cleanest rocks ever. So I'm not much for suprises anymore

 

[Chrispaul]

Without the live rock you don't get the critters and it's amazing how much life pops up! Mine is covered in small sponges and feather dusters, I think you need this sort of life going on to keep it natural and helps with keeping certain fish like mandarins and butterfly fish!

 

[skybears]

That's crazy 2 drive out of state for it. Either that's an untapped market or a dead one. I have 6 lfs reef stores and they all know each other of course so my days off is a round trip 2 all then back if what I liked wasn't at my favorite store. And on my lunch break there's a store that the owner is a horder and has a remora and a lot of other crazy fish so that's my release for going back 2 work. I couldn't imagine not a lfs expecally for rock as I'm very picky. I went live rock 1st tank and now I've cycled my dead rock and waitn for my stand 2 build its self and is a 75g current is 30. And how can u rid LR of bristles and eggs as I want 2 transfer the rock but not the pests. I know bristles can b good but my clean up crew does the job and they just annoy me and asteria stars and inherited margarita snails from LR have 200 of em. Babys

Yes it is very sad that in northern Idaho we do not have an lfs we have to drive to Spokane Washington to get anything considering a store let alone a fish store. So the last nine months I've done of research and Studies have been off these web sites and contacting online dealers about their products. But all-in-all when I'm done because I decided to create a 75 gallon sump / refugium to match my 75 gallon tank now it's back to the glass shop to pick up the glass to make the new tank but I think with the hundred and fifty pounds of rock it would be my best bet to have a larger sump refugium then what I was planning

 

[skybears]

I got some sand from TBS also and didn't like the look. It was crushed up shells and not white. I ended up sifting the large stuff out and adding white sand on top

Thank you that is very need to know because I like the look of whites and thank you

 

[skybears]

All the online links are awesome and saved in my bookmarks, but my question is still unanswered. What is the reason advising us to order online instead of getting it from a lfs?
I don't mean a big box store, I mean a local small business dedicated to saltwater.
Thanks!

If I didn't spend years to get in the position I'm in I would open a saltwater fish store it would be a killing here

 

[Mandrew]

I start my new tanks with rock from reefcleaners.org
It's $90 for 50lbs and it's pretty nice looking. I'll upload a photo of the 100lbs I ordered for my 75g build I'm working on.

 

[Mandrew]

Did I mention free shipping?

 

[skybears]

Well I went for going live and I ended up getting the package deal from TBS but they're sending me, and I was really surprised 150 pounds of live rock and 75 pound of live sand for my 75 gallon tank I was surprised that so much Rock

 

[skybears]

Well I went for going live and I ended up getting the package deal from TBS but they're sending me, and I was really surprised 150 pounds of live rock and 75 pound of live sand for my 75 gallon tank I was surprised that so much Rock

But I was given another hundred gallon tank earlier today so I think I'll be setting up that one the same time I'm setting up the 75 so yeah I'm going to have live everywhere let's just leave it at that. Lol